Councillors were confronted by an angry patient at a meeting last night who slammed the running of GP services in the Towns.

Zi Fincham, chairman of the Sunlight Centre Patient Participation Group (PPG), criticised Medway's Clinical Commissioning Group and DMC services for failing to take on board people's complaints as well as waiting times at practices.

It came during Medway Council's health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee meeting at Gun Wharf, in Chatham.

Ms Fincham was given five minutes to speak about patient concerns in relation to a previous proposal to merge five Gillingham and Chatham surgeries - Sunlight Centre, St Mary's Island, Boots Pentagon, Twydall and Balmoral Green - onto three sites.

During her speech, where tempers flared and she clashed with chairman Cllr David Wildey (Con), she claimed waiting times at practices were too long, complaints weren't being handled properly and public consultations on the proposal were "engineered".

The committee heard how the CCG – responsible for the planning and commissioning of health care services – had received eight complaints from patients since August relating to prescription services, telephone communication and appointment availability.

People reported "significant delays" in issuing prescriptions, being given wrong medication or receiving the wrong dosage amounts.

"These practices are very demanding. It takes about two to three years to get surgeries into a good and stable position." - DMC's Ravi Gupta

It was revealed one person was unable to get through to their GP over a two day period, while another failed to get through to their local service after attempting 67 calls.

People have also been facing waiting times at their surgeries for two to three weeks, had appointments cancelled without being notified and long queues.

Since the complaints the CCG has taken "pro-active action", having carried out visits to the five practices and evaluated them.

Tracey Rouse, from Medway CCG, added they were "continuing to monitor" services following complaints, but added how DMC had taken on "a number of demanding surgeries and some aren't good enough".

Ravi Gupta, one of the founders of the DMC service, added: "These practices are very demanding. It takes about two to three years to get surgeries into a good and stable position."

Cllr Teresa Murray (Lab) and Cllr Adam Price expressed views that DMC needed to improve their communication with patients, informing them of the latest changes and updates.

Healthwatch Medway manager Maggie Cane explained how they were in talks with the service about providing a monthly newsletter for their users to be sent out or placed on surgery noticeboards.

KentOnline reported earlier how 50% of senior doctor jobs in the county aren't being filled.

Read more: All the latest news from Medway